Dunleith is a suburb of Wilmington

Wilmington, Delaware

Wilmington is the largest city in the state of Delaware, United States, and is located at the confluence of the Christina River and Brandywine Creek, near where the Christina flows into the Delaware River. It is the county seat of New Castle County and one of the major cities in the Delaware Valley...

, in New Castle County, Delaware

Delaware

Delaware is a U.S. state located on the Atlantic Coast in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It is bordered to the south and west by Maryland, and to the north by Pennsylvania...

. It was built in the early 1950s, and was the first housing development marketed for African-Americans in Delaware. In 1990, the population was 2,600.

Geography

Dunleith is located at 39°42′31"N 75°33′20"W (39.708724, -75.555479). It is 2 miles (3.2 km) south of Wilmington and the Delaware Memorial Bridge

Delaware Memorial Bridge

The Delaware Memorial Bridge is a set of twin suspension bridges crossing the Delaware River. The toll bridges carry Interstate 295 and U.S. Route 40 between Delaware and New Jersey...

 is 2 miles (3.2 km) SE.

History

The community was named after the Rogers and Du Pont family

Du Pont family

The Du Pont family is an American family descended from Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours . The son of a Paris watchmaker and a member of a Burgundian noble family, he and his sons, Victor Marie du Pont and Eleuthère Irénée du Pont, emigrated to the United States in 1800 and used the resources of...

's estate, "Dunleith Mansion". In 1949 (Housing Act of 1949

Housing Act of 1949

The American Housing Act of 1949 was a landmark, sweeping expansion of the federal role in mortgage insurance and issuance and the construction of public housing...

), Delaware Community Homes bought the approximately 85 acres (343,983.1 m²), and the homes were constructed by housing developer Leon Weiner. Many World War II veterans, blue-collar workers, and teachers became homeowners for the first time. The streets were named after prominent African-Americans such as Jackie Robinson

Jackie Robinson

Jack Roosevelt "Jackie" Robinson was the first black Major League Baseball player of the modern era. Robinson broke the baseball color line when he debuted with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947...

, Ralph Bunche

Ralph Bunche

Ralph Johnson Bunche or 1904December 9, 1971) was an American political scientist and diplomat who received the 1950 Nobel Peace Prize for his late 1940s mediation in Palestine. He was the first person of color to be so honored in the history of the Prize...

 and George Washington Carver

George Washington Carver

George Washington Carver , was an American scientist, botanist, educator, and inventor. The exact day and year of his birth are unknown; he is believed to have been born into slavery in Missouri in January 1864....

. Subsequently two churches were built; Coleman Memorial Methodist Church on Anderson Drive and Community Presbyterian Church on Rogers Road. The Dunleith Community School was founded in 1956.